With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, 5G communication, Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence, there are increasingly more application scenarios for power management chips. At the same time, traditional industries, such as network communications, computers, security, industrial, consumer electronics and other markets continue to grow, so the demand for power management chips is also climbing.
DCDC is one of the power management chips providing DC power supply, which is widely used in various electronic products and is called the heart of electronic products. Broadly speaking, DCDC includes linear regulator (LDO), switching regulator (DCDC) and charge pump regulator (Charge pump). What we usually call DCDC refers to the switching regulator. DCDC works by turning on and off switching components to transfer energy. Its operating principle determines the advantages of DC/DC with high efficiency, high power density, and allowing wide input voltage. Both buck and boost can be achieved with excellent thermal performance. The following diagram shows the topologies commonly used in DCDC:
Figure 1 Common Topologies of DCDC
The advantage of high power density of DCDC switching power supply is more suitable for high current, high voltage, high efficiency and miniaturization application requirements, such as base stations, data centers, robotics, new energy vehicles and other emerging industry applications. Referring to the data analysis of FutureWise, the global market size of DCDC will reach 5 billion USD in the next five years, while the demand of Chinese market will exceed 30%.
DCDC market size over $7 billion by 2026 (in millions of USD)
Figure 2: DCDC market size over $7 billion by 2026 (in millions of USD)
Although the market space of DCDC is vast, the main market share is occupied by foreign analog chip giants. At present, the market share of domestic manufacturers is still low, leaving much room for future development. The development cycle of analog chips is long, and the R&D investment is high. It also relies heavily on the design experience of R&D personnel and technology support. Most of the major overseas analog chip makers are in IDM mode with a full range of products. The Chinese semiconductor market has inevitably been limited by the supply from overseas vendors in successive supply shortages. Customers do not have any bargaining power. Therefore, the importance and urgency of DCDC localization is becoming more and more prominent.
At the same time, in the context of the chip industry rising to the national strategic level. With the maturity of the domestic process and capacity, the domestic semiconductor in DCDC ushered in a huge opportunity for development. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, China's power management chip market size has exceeded 80 billion yuan in 2020 (11.9 billion USD), accounting for about 35.9% of the global power management chip market. China's power management chip market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% from 2020 to 2025, reaching a market size of 23.45 billion USD by 2025. DCDC power chips account for about 13.12% of the power management chip market size. 2019-2021 China's DCDC power chip market size is about 9.748 billion yuan (1.45 billion USD), 10.011 billion yuan (1.49 billion USD) and 10.592 billion yuan (1.58 billion USD) respectively.
Figure 3: China Power Management Chip Market Size (in 100 million of USD)
Energy efficiency and power supply is the primary concern for the development of any industry. The development of regulated voltage and current source requirements in data center, security, network communication, automotive computing and mobile security industries largely depends on various types of DCDC converters, which largely keep increasing the market demand for DCDC. By fully utilizing its advantages in marketing and R&D, WAYON will take the security and network communication industry applications as the starting point based on years of in-depth cultivation, to develop multiple lines and provide customers with more valuable power supply solutions.
Figure 4: WAYON DCDC on the camera application solution
The power supply for security monitoring generally uses PoE or DC 12V DC power supply, which is stepped down to 5V or 3.3V through the first stage DCDC, and then stepped down through the second stage DCDC converter to provide power for DSP, DDR, and PHY.
Figure 5: WAYON DCDC on the wireless router application solution
Most of the Netcom products are powered by 12V adapters, which are stepped down to 5V or 3.3V through the first stage DCDC, and then stepped down through the second stage DCDC converter to power each subsystem.
WD2306 has an input voltage range of 2.5V to 5.5V and an output voltage range of 0.6V to 3.6V, fully meeting the DSP power supply requirements. With an operating efficiency of up to 94%, quiescent current less than 20uA, and an off current of only 0.1uA, it can effectively reduce the power consumption of its devices. Its internal integration of high-side and low-side power MOSFETs makes the external application circuit simple. The maximum switching frequency can be up to 2MHz, which allows the use of small size inductors to reduce BOM costs. Also, a variety of internal protection functions are integrated, including over-current protection, overvoltage protection, and soft start, improving device reliability.
WD2316 input voltage range is 4.5V to 18V, output voltage range is 0.8V to 7.0V, with maximum efficiency up to 93%, and quiescent current of 170uA, off current less than 3uA. COT control method is adopted to facilitate fast transient response of output. The internal integration of low on-resistance high-side and low-side power MOSFETs, as well as internal integrated functions such as over-voltage protection, soft-start, and over-temperature protection. The peripheral circuitry is also relatively simple, with the goal of reducing customer BOM costs. The above two types of 5V/18V DCDC will be launched in SOT23 and SOT563 packages, of which SOT563 is currently the smallest size of the same specifications in the market, using advanced FLIP-CHIP package, greatly reducing the interference of parasitic parameters brought about by the typing line, and further improve efficiency.
In the future, WAYON will combine its own market characteristics to develop a long-term DCDC development plan to meet the needs of various market applications. In 2022, WAYON will launch 5V/18V/28V DCDC products under 3A for the traditional market of network communication, security, TV, etc. Moreover, WAYON will start the development of high voltage and small current products, such as 40V/60V/80/100V, to meet the needs of industrial, automotive, BMS and other markets. WAYON plans at the same time high-current DCDC products for CPU, FPGA, SOC and other powerful applications, such as communication, network, data center and other industries, and gradually improve the DCDC product line in 3 to 5 years.
